1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an article depositing machine which is suitable for an unmanned operation of accepting a deposit or receiving payment into banks or like establishments or for receiving an article in an article depositary.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, automatic cash dispensing machines making use of a credit card such, for example, as a magnetic card, have been employed, for example, in banks or like establishments, for the purposes of labor saving of business, giving better service to customers or the like.
With such an automatic cash dispensing machine, it is possible to perform an unmanned cash dispensing operation only by inserting a magnetic card having recorded thereon a customer's identification number and the like into the machine and by actuating keys of the machine.
However, for depositing or paying moneny into a bank, it is necessary, except in isolated cases, for a customer to go to the window of the bank as usual.
With such a system, it is impossible, of course, to deposit or pay money into the bank outside its business hours.
For automation of the system for acceptance of deposit or payment outside the business hours of banks, various developments have been attempted and, as a result, an automatic depositing machine such, for example, as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,020, has already been proposed. The greatest difficulty in this kind of machine is an examination of the genuineness of cash. In the machine already proposed, bills are inserted into the machine one by one for the examination of the genuineness of cash and for other necessary operations but this is time-consuming and requires a customer to conduct troublesome operations and, in addition, cannot always assure an accurate examination of the genuineness of cash.
With another type of depositing machine, a depositor writes predetermined matters, for example, the amount of money to be deposited, his name, etc., on a depositing container (such, for example, as an envelope) placed outside of the machine, puts money in the container, opens a shutter of a deposit inlet after identified, deposits from the inlet the depositing container having contained therein the cash and then puts up the shutter.
In such a machine, since the depositor is required to write the matters necessary for the deposit on an envelope or the like, there is the possibility of his making a mistake in writing of the necessary matters. Further, no limitation is imposed on the time for opening of the shutter, so that the depositing machine is greatly affected by dust, humidity or by a foreign substance thrown into the machine by a customer on purpose or due to carelessness and this especially true, for example, when water enters the machine.
If characters written on the envelope are erased or blurred or there is a mistake in the matters written on the envelope, trouble arises between the bank and the depositor.